I spent the day helping a friend prepare for her garage sale. It begins on Thursday and runs until Saturday, and you will be hearing a lot about it this week, as I am going to be there the entire time helping. Today, we moved furniture. Tomorrow, I will be taking the ad to the newspaper. Wednesday is the final set-up, and then the busy period begins.
It occurred to me today that preparing for a garage sale is a bit like a spiritual cleansing. There is definitely a reassessment process going on when choosing which items to sell, discard, or give away. The winnowing process can be brutal. Do I really want to let go of these baby clothes? How about my favorite dress from 1969? What do I do with the 300 dearly loved stuffed animals from my childhood? And, by dearly loved, I am not talking about pristine items in their original packaging. It is keep it or pitch it. What would either do to my soul?
Going through the books is tough. So many books have contributed to the journey of my life. Spirituality can be found in very odd places. I have the entire collection of Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who… series. Anyone who lives with cats – especially Feline Priestesses – can understand how deeply spiritual the connection between Qwilleran, Koko, and Yum Yum is. Yet, they can be seen by some as just fluffy, formula detective stories. However, Koko’s whiskers can apparently communicate with Qwilleran’s mustache. How much more spiritual can you get?
Spiritual practices require a de-cluttering of the soul. Everything needs to be stripped down to the essentials and then critically examined. Priorities are established. Resolutions are made. There is, finally, more room in which to grow.
So, this old pagan will be working on a garage sale this week, and you are invited to come along.
Wisdom for today: When old ladies move furniture all day, their feet ache at night.
Who said spiritual practices were painless?
Conversations With Chickadees 
Oh how I understand as I unpack and winnow 21 years of life (or more since some of the things already made the move into the apartment I just left) into a new place — and discover that I am in a new place too without quite knowing how or when I got there. “Well this doesn’t fit.” ” Why did I ever get that?” “Am I ever going to interact with this again.”. it’s a process. Good luck to your friend with hers. — and to you with yours if and when.
By: Sandy Anderson on October 13, 2015
at 7:54 am
Thank you, Sandy, and good luck with your unpacking, too.
By: nightmistwalker on October 13, 2015
at 9:58 am